Pebble Smart Watch Update for IOS 7 and SDK 2.0

Today Pebble unveiled its software update with deeper integration with iOS7and its brand new SDK 2.0.

Pebble became very famous when the company raised over 10.2 million dollars from over 69,000 backers on Kickstarter. Since the product started to ship in January 2013, 190,000 Pebble watches are now worn by happy users and over 50 applications are available in iTunes and Google Play, a total of 2,200 apps and faces are on mypebblefaces.com and 80,000 watchfaces were created on watchfacegenerator.de.

Basically the update will allow Pebblers with iPhones running iOS 7 to see all the notifications from the Notification Center on their watches. Before, they would only get sms, email and caller ID notifications.

Now, when users enable the notifications they want in the Notification Center on the phone, such as Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Evernote, Path, Flickr, Dropbox, WhatsApp, Flipboard, they will appear on the Pebble screen.

Developers will be happy to get the SDK 2.0 which will make their lives easier, thanks to the four new APIs: Javascript, Accelerometer, Data Logging and Persistent Storage:

JavaScript API: before today’s update, Pebble applications written both for iOS and Android were native applications, with the new Javascript API, Pebble will now get web applications. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky told me that the strategy is to allow developers to create applications using the same code for all mobile operating systems.

Accelerometer API: gives direct access to the accelerometer, which, according to Pebble, is different from what other wearable devices provide. For example, the FitBit API only provides access to the data collected by the sensors on the device.

Data Logging: enables data log when disconnected from the phone, this is great for fitness applications. For example when you swim or run, it will keep the accelerometer data on the watch until you can reconnect to your phone. According to Pebble, it allows for about one day of accelerometer data log.

Persistant Storage: allows to stores info such as settings and game’s high scores directly on the watch. It will also keep some info on the watch so the next time you check it, you will not get the loading icon… This is not a fully fledged storage solution for users like the 8/16 GB that you have in your phone, but merely a memory buffer to be used by developers to make the user experience better.

Pebble is currently working with iControl, Foursquare, GoPro and Yelp to launch Pebble apps from these partners.

I have tested the Pebble for a few days now, and my review will be posted soon with the iOS 7 update. I have tried a few apps such as RunKeeper (free), PebbleCam ($2.99), WatchNote ($1.99), PebbleSnap ($2.99), and they worked pretty well. Overall the current user experience is not always seamless. For instance, getting apps from the Pebble store mypebblefaces.com that you know will work for sure on iOS7 is not easy, the paid apps from the Apple appstore were all working perfectly. It would be a challenge for a non-tech savvy user to understand that you have to actually download the mypebblefaces app for iPhone in addition to the Pebble app in order to look for the applications you want and download them from your phone.